Mac users spend on average spend $20 to $30 more a night on hotels than their PC counterparts, according to online travel site Orbitz.

Furthermore, Mac users are 40% more likely to book a four- or five-star hotel than PC users, and when Mac and PC users book the same hotel, Mac users tend to stay in more expensive rooms.

The Wall Street Journal says, “the effort underscores how retailers are becoming bigger users of so-called predictive analytics, crunching reams of data to guess the future shopping habits of customers. The goal is to tailor offerings to people believed to have the highest ‘lifetime value’ to the retailer.”

Sure, but what about the consumer? Are not Apple users getting jacked here?

By optimizing its search results to the likely motivations of Mac users, Orbitz is putting itself in a better position to satisfy them, and convert them into return customers. As long as these users are still able to sort by price (which Orbitz says will be the case), it’s a win/win situation.

By the way, the average household income for adult owners of Mac computers is $98,560, compared with $74,452 for a PC owner. Perhaps Mac addicts can invest some of their extra income in a device running Windows or Android, and use it to book hotels, and for all other online shopping (because other sites are bound to adopt this practice).

Native Nebraskan in the Pacific Northwest. Chief Storyteller at Bonehook, a guide service and bait shop for brands. Co-founder and editor of AdPulp. Contributor to The Content Strategist. Doer of the things written about herein.

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